Social Security on debt panel agenda

As a critical deadline for the supercommittee nears, Social Security appears to be on the negotiating table.

In private conversations, and now in public, the idea of changing the social program as part of a deficit-reduction deal is gaining some traction — a move that has been politically unthinkable for years.

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In a speech Monday in Louisville, Ky., House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) appeared to raise the stakes on a grand bargain that would include major entitlement changes. Standing with his Senate counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), at the McConnell Center at the University of Lousiville, Boehner said such action would show markets that Congress can tackle the deficit.

“Nothing,” Boehner said, according to prepared remarks, “nothing, would send a more reassuring message to the markets than taking bipartisan steps to fix the structural problems in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.”

In a brief interview with POLITICO on Monday, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the co-chair of the panel, said she was “not going to talk about the details of any package, but I can tell you that everybody on the committee is serious about finding a way forward.”

Asked specifically about Social Security, Murray said, “Everything is on the table, and we’ve made no decisions.”

The public comments mirror private discussions in leadership circles recently about how possible changes to the program could be completed through the supercommittee.

On Monday in Kentucky, Boehner said curing the debt and employment crisis “is personal” for him, likening a bipartisan compromise on the supercommittee to a 1996 bipartisan restructuring of welfare — which was done “by a Republican Congress under a Democratic president, Bill Clinton,” Boehner said.

But Boehner acknowledged a major challenge he faces as he tries to reform massive government programs — the political culture that favors loud voices, bold claims and inaction.

“I want these things to happen,” Boehner said, speaking of grand-scale changes. “I didn’t take this job to preside over a partisan screaming match.”

If the committee were to take up changes to Social Security, it could show that Congress is looking for systemic changes to the nation’s finances — something markets and credit rating agencies want to see. It may not help the committee get to $1.2 trillion, but Democrats are all but certain to insist that Boehner commit to serious changes on taxes alongside such entitlement restructuring.

One Social Security change being floated is a change to the consumer price index, which has been considered in the course of other spending debates over the past year.

Since talks collapsed over the summer between Boehner and President Barack Obama during debt ceiling negotiations, the supercommittee gives those who favor a grand bargain another shot at a massive deal.

And the panel is under a tight deadline. In 22 days, it is set to report its findings. And this week marks an unofficial deadline for the panel: The Congressional Budget Office has said it needs to see the committee’s report for budgetary scoring in the early part of this month.